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Title: To Sail Beyond the Sunset | Author: Robert A. Heinlein | Publisher: Robert A. Heinlein (1988)

Ghost towns can be a mixed bag. Okaton, South Dakota is an example. Lonely, eerie, doomed, forgotten. But maybe not…quite…gone. We’ve stopped a few times to view the decaying town. At one time its deterioration was basis for it to be a tourist attraction, but honestly, there are better ones. A rock shop operated there, boxes of rocks sitting in a fenced-in lot, the dubious enterprise neglected. A gas station that always seems to be closed for the season. I’m pretty sure we stopped there once in the past and it was open–but they had no gas. But I did once buy a decades-old calendar from the Okaton Bank in the adjoining gift shop. This particular time we saw no one anywhere. Meanwhile the harsh Dakota winters and harsh Dakota summers take the place apart little by little. Nearby even I-90 looks a bit deserted too, its occasional cars speeding heedlessly past forgotten Okaton. Photos taken September 27, 2011.

more: http://www.legendsofamerica.com/sd-okaton.html